Autism through Biology and Education 1

Autism through Biology and Education

Karina Ho

University of California, Santa Barbara

Autism through Biology and Education 2

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder; this

disorder is usually apparent in children at a young age and has a range of different symptoms. I

will examine how Autism Spectrum Disorder is studied through different disciplines and how

each discipline gives readers unique information about it. A discipline is a community of

scholars that share genres, texts and research methods (Melzer. 2011). Autism can be studied by

the biological and educational disciplines, but is easily understood, and therefore more effective,

when it is looked at through the educational perspective because it uses easy to understand

language and evidence found in other disciplines to clarify their ideas.

Autism can be studied through a biological perspective because it is a disorder dealing

with the development of the brain, but evidence comes off as confusing due to its use of complex

scientific jargon. In the discipline of biology, researchers study the causes of Autism Spectrum

Disorder and its purpose is to pinpoint what is happening in the body that causes someone to

have autism. Experiments and other academic research papers are used to prove their claim. In

Anatomy and Cell Biology of Autism Spectrum Disorder Lessons from Human Genetics​, the

authors, Kristel T. E. Kleijer, et al write from a biological viewpoint to try to prove that Autism

Spectrum Disorder is a result of human genetics. One piece of evidence used was from the

Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network Surveillance Year Principal. The source

explains “​Molecular genetic studies have identified more than 100 ASD risk genes carrying rare

and penetrant deleterious mutations in approximately 10–25% of affected individuals” (Huguet

et al. ​2013​). For me, someone who isn’t trained in reading scientific articles like this one, this

evidence is difficult to read​ due to the use of words such as “penetrant deleterious mutations”.

This is an ineffective use of evidence because it is hard to comprehend. Kyle Stedman, an

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English professor at Rockford University explains, “readers and writers don’t always see eye to

eye on the same text” (2011) which explains why biologists might use these terms. To many

readers, the biological discipline uses evidence in a confusing way, and therefore is ineffective

because the evidence is unconvincing. Autism can be looked at through a biological perspective,

but it is very ineffective for the average person’s understanding as it is hard to understand.

Autism can be studied by the discipline of education because people with autism learn

differently from people without it and uses language that is easy to understand. Peter C. Mundy

and Ann M. Mastergeorge explain that in order to understand ASD, one must “imagine a child

who has significant delays or impairments in the development of joint attention” (2012). This

relates to how effective the article is because it is so comprehensible for readers who belong to

other disciplines. Furthermore, the education discipline writes about how currently, “intervention

for autism” in schools “focus on ‘measures of the symptoms of autism...or IQ, which may not

directly relate to the outcomes of interest’ to teachers and schools” (Mundy, P. et al 2012).

Although formal, this discipline uses common language to effectively get its information across

to the average reader. The educational perspective uses evidence in an effective way in order to

explain what autism is and the needs that people with autism have.

Although both are important, the educational perspective is more inclusive of other

disciplines as it takes into account the psychological and biological perspectives and what they

imply about autism, and therefore gives a better understanding of what autism is. The biological

perspective explains more of what is happening in a person with autism’s body. Researchers

have explained how one set of proteins, of the Shank family, are related to the diagnosis of ASD

and that these proteins affect different things in the body such as connections throughout the
Autism through Biology and Education 4

body, leading to ASD. (Leblond CS, Heinrich J, Delorme R et al. 2012.). From this evidence, it

is obvious to me that the biological perspective is a lot more specific with its research as it is

looking for things that are different between people with and without autism. This is helpful

because it can lead to treatment or medication that can help people with autism in the future.

However, it is very difficult to read and follow for people who do not study biology. The

educational perspective also explains that “research has suggested that children with autism are

most vulnerable to difficulties in the development of complex mental processes” (Mundy. 2012).

This perspective manages to encapsulate a larger reader base, rather than the more niche

biological perspective that relies on advanced scientific language that is incomprehensible to the

average person. ​It is more inclusive of different disciplines and is also easily read by people part

of any of these disciplines. This makes it more effective when reading through the educational

perspective because it gets the message across to a much larger audience. As Stedman writes:

“It’s possible that a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the u​niverse will open new

doors of understanding” (2011). The educational discipline does exactly this— it allows for

better understanding because its evidence is multidisciplinary. The educational perspective is a

lot more effective in the way it presents its evidence because it takes multiple disciplines and

sheds light onto their different discoveries.

All disciplines are important because they uncover things about a topic that another

discipline wouldn’t. Autism itself is a large topic because it affects so many people. It can be

studied by biology, as biology studies what happens in the bodies of people with disabilities and

by education, as education is important to students of all abilities. The biological discipline uses

complex scientific jargon, making its evidence ineffective and its points hard to follow for most
Autism through Biology and Education 5

readers. The educational perspective is easier to understand to a wider range of people because it

is inclusive of all different disciplines and how they intertwine in order to give students with

autism the best possible education. Both perspectives have an important part in studying autism,

but it is a lot easier to understand what autism is through the educational perspective.
Autism through Biology and Education 6

Works Cited

Cera, Della Fina, & Cera, Rachele. (2015). ​Protecting the rights of people with autism in the

fields of education and employment : International, European and national perspectives

(Online access with purchase: Springer (t)). Cham: SpringerOpen.

Elsabbagh M, Divan G, Koh Y et al (2012) ​Global prevalence of autism and other pervasive

developmental disorders​. Autism Res 5:160–179. doi: 10.1002/aur.239

Huguet G, Ey E, Bourgeron T (2013) ​The genetic landscapes of autism spectrum disorders.

Annu

Rev Genomics Hum Genetics 1​ 4:191–213. doi: 10.1146/annurev-genom-091212-153431

Kleijer K.T.E., Huguet G., Tastet J., Bourgeron T., Burbach J.P.H. (2017) ​Anatomy and Cell

Biology of Autism Spectrum Disorder: Lessons from Human Genetics.​ In: Schmeisser M.,

Boeckers T. (eds) Translational Anatomy and Cell Biology of Autism Spectrum

Disorder. Advances in Anatomy, Embryology and Cell Biology, vol 224. Springer, Cham

Leblond CS, Heinrich J, Delorme R et al (2012) ​Genetic and functional analyses of SHANK2

mutations suggest a multiple hit model of autism spectrum disorders.​ PLoS Genet

8:e1002521. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002521

Melzer, D. (2011) ​Disciplines and Discourse Communities​. In: Intro to Writing Across the
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Curriculum.

Mundy, P., & Mastergeorge, A. (2012). ​Educational interventions for students with autism​ (1st

ed., Autism for educators series). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Stedman, K. (2011). ​Annoying Ways People Use Sources​ In: Writing Spaces: Readings on

Writing.